Announcing:
The First Ever (And Maybe The Only) IF Mini-Competition!
[Note: Right now, all that's here is my post to raif. Further
bulletins as events warrant.]
While perusing the sample games written in Inform for a Game Design
class at
http://www.cs.nwu.edu/academics/courses/c95-gd/ , someone on
the ifMUD suggested that we do what the class did--have a bunch of
people all write a game based on the same initial premise. We
discussed it a bit, and I decided to do it.
So, without further ado, here are the rules for TFE(AMTO)IFM-C!
The Rules
Rule #1: No arguing about the rules. This is a dictatorship.
Efficient, yet sublimely dictatorial.
Rule #2: The premise will be posted both here on the newsgroup and on
my web page at
http://www.bioc.rice.edu/~lpsmith/IF/mini-comp/ on or
about May 20th. That gives you one week to tell your friends and
prepare, whatever the heck that might entail. It also gives me a week
to get my act together.
Rule #3: After the premise is posted, all entrants will have one month
to write a game based on that premise, get it beta-tested, and sent in
to me. You can either e-mail it to me (lpsmith@rice.edu) or upload it
to our ftp server; e-mail me for details.
Rule #4: By entering this, you agree to let me upload both the game
and the source code to gmd. See "Why I'm Doing This", below.
Rule #5: Once all the games are in, I'll release the games and let
people play them for a bit. Anyone who wants to be in on the judging
process, e-mail me a report of the games you played, indicating which
one (or which few) you liked the best. Also, if you wish, you may make
up categories and vote for games for that category ('Most Creative',
'Farthest Afield', whatever).
Rule #6: After the votes stop coming in, or after one month, whichever
comes first, I'll compile the votes and announce the winners. For
whatever categories have come up. Also, at this point, I will release
the source code for the games.
Rule #7: Everyone can feel free to talk about any and all the games
before, during, and after the contest. If you post about specific
games, please use appropriate spoiler warnings, whether for content or
opinion.
Rule #8: All rules subject to change with or without warning; the
basics shouldn't change, though. I'm willing to make exceptions for
those people who either A) Make me feel sorry for them, or B) Make me
laugh.
As promised, here's the 'Why I'm Doing This' section:
Why I'm Doing This: The Section
- 'Cause it sounded fun.
- To spark the creative juices.
- To provide sample games and code to potential IF authors (It can be
very enlightening to see how different people approach the same
problem, both from a game design perspective and from a coding
perspective. Hence the requirement that source code be released.)
- It was too interesting an idea to pass up.
The Rambly Bit: The Section You Can Skip
I'll probably be spending the week refining the basic idea I have for
the premise, since the whole endeavor rests on this. I'm aiming at
something between "Write a game including a jagged rock, a beard, and
the phrase 'Hoity-toity,'" and the Game Design class's assignment about
Twonkies (http://www.cs.nwu.edu/academics/courses/c95-gd/homework/twonky_island_story_bible.htm
). Since a large part of the idea is for potential authors to see
how different people attack the same problem, the tasks assigned in the
scenario will hopefully be both interesting and universal. We'll see
how it works out.
This line last updated May 12th, 1998 AD
lpsmith
@rice.edu